Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1887-09-17
Catching a Nan-o'-War Bird.

An old sailor. y hose appearance in
dicatri that he had been much buife;ed
bs mi and wage. stood Yesterday
resting hl> back against a mooring-
post near 4 bulkhead in South street,
and. p!te the raw atmosphere, med
ltatjFeit smoking The glowing bowl
OF ~ pipe rested oa the top Of bar
rel some distance away. and the stem
va, fully four feet long. L twas yery
thin. and seemed To be boGe It's hue
wa> bright. glossy black. though
what - original color had been the
sailor had 10 say Il curved with a
long. graceful. uniform sweep from the
mariner lips To the bowl.
''lt the wing bone Of man-o'-war
bird. said the owner when asked
about it, Land folks. believe, call
them atb4trps>e>; we sailors like the
Old name Of nau-o war bird better.
| caught the one that | got this stem
from abont five hundred miles south of
the Cape Of Good Hope. hooked him
with piece Of raw lat porksted TO the
end Of Il rope LANYARD. 1t was blowing
half a gale Of wind. and the man-o'- war
birds were out enjoying it as usual
They just touch the top of q wave
with their feet, and then give a sharp.
quick cry and 90 driving on hundred
yards or 50 before they take another
plunge. | got Il big lump of fat pork
at the galley and let it tow overheard
with the LANYARD, about fifty wards
a>tern of the ship. One of the birds
saw it. and had swallowed it in min
ute, and we began To haul him. My
stars but he gave Us a ob. 1t took
five of Us 10 get him on deck, and then.
Of all the unwieldy birds you ever saw
he was tie worst. \ goose would
have been graceful to him, and he did
not seem a BIT ike the beautiful white
birds of his kind that were sweeping
about the ship, now ahead and now
astern, sailing against the wind or with
it just about the same rate of speed,
and seeming to be part of the gale.
/ '"Mv prisoner squatted down on the
/ deck and began to cry. There was no
doubt about it. He sobbed and whim-
pered like hurt child. and the tears
ran down hi, long hooked beak and
dropped off the knob at the end. After
a time he became seasick But his i'll
ness did not cease there. He got more
aud more sick every minute as the ves-
sci rolled and pitched IN the heavy sea
I that was running. 1t was genuine sea-
I sickness This seems curious with 8
bird that lives altogether on the water,
but a man-o war bird always gets sea-
sick when he is taken on the deck of a
rolling ship would have saved him
if | could. but If | had thrown him
overheard he would have been swamped
by the biz seas before he could have
used his long wings Neither could he
rise from the deck, and i'll about two
hours he laid his head down on the
plank> and died.
Il divided the long wing bones
among the crew, and they all made
pipe-stems Of them. They are hollow
flesh-colored, and very light, and that
is the reason the man-o war bird car
tly 50 long. 1t is forever on the wing
ana only goes ashore on some uninhab-
tied island at breeding-time. Sailor:
think they sleep living, that is, some
of them think so but | believe they
sleep floating on the water when it il
calm enough which is not often abou
the Cape Of Good Hope, or else move
sleep at all. They are the bigges
birds that live anywhere. The one
caught weighed sweutynine pounds
and measured seventeen feet from win:
tip to wing tip. and ne was not at all
large one No we had no Ill luck afte
the BIRD death. If you shoe. one an'
Kill him you may look out for squalls
but to catch hn with piece of ia
pork and let him die on deck is a dii
ferent thing altogether, you know. y
NeU York Sun.